The Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research at Stanford University launches a Teen Board providing teens affiliated with a Center study the opportunity to volunteer in support of allergy and asthma research. Teens comprise approximately 25% of trial patients at the Center juggling classes, after-school activities and more in order to participate.

The board will be co-led by high school seniors Matthew Friend and Isabelle Chun. 15-year-old Ben Bernstein will serve as the board's fundraising lead. All three teens have demonstrated exceptional support in promoting food allergy awareness. Among the three, they have written about their food allergy experiences in the media, spoken at food allergy conferences, produced awareness building videos, and engaged in fundraising activities in support of the Center.

One of the board's exciting initiatives, its mentorship program, will pair new trial participants with teen trial graduates in order to provide peer-to-peer support as they navigate through a study. The Teen Board will also develop teen resource materials which will be included on the Center's website. In addition, the Board will engage teen volunteers in supporting the Center's fundraising, advocacy, and education efforts.

If you are a teen affiliated with a study at our Center and are interested in volunteering with our Teen Board, please contact us!

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Teen Board Leadership

Matthew Friend is a high school senior in Chicago and Teen Board Co-President. He had his first allergic reaction when he was just 8 months old and endured additional severe reactions throughout his childhood. In 2012, he enrolled in the Center’s phase 1 multiple food allergy oral immunotherapy with Xolair trial for his allergies to wheat, oat, barley and rye. Nine months later he was eating 8,000 milligrams of wheat, as well as his other allergens. This freed Matthew up to eat mini oreos, Chicagos’ famous Weiner circle fries, cupcakes and more!

Matthew is an ambassador and advocate for the food allergy community and has spoken at various food allergy conferences. He writes extensively about his experience with food allergies with his articles appearing in the Huffington Post, Stanford’s SCOPE blog and most recently in the Center’s Teen eNews edition which he guest edited. Learn more about Matthew and the articles he has written here.

16-year-old Isabelle Chun is a high school senior in Palo Alto, California. She graduated from the Center’s phase 1 multiple food allergy oral immunotherapy with Xolair trial and is now desensitized to peanuts and almonds. As Teen Board Co-President, Isabelle is developing content for our Teen Board webpage and is currently working on a series of video interviews with patients who have graduated from Center trials. Look out for Isabelle’s new content on this webpage in the months to come!

Ben Bernstein is a 15-year-old who currently lives in Miami, Florida. After going through a trial at the Center, he now eats 3 cashews per day—a food he was previously allergic too. “My partial freedom of my allergies have showed me how lucky I am to have been in this trial and makes me feel obligated to help other kids. I now look at everything differently and have decided to help other sufferers of food allergies by attempting to raise funds for Dr. Kari Nadeau at Stanford University to help other kids, like me, get freed of their allergies.” In order to garner support for Stanford’s research, he founded Food Allergy Freedom – a charity dedicated to supporting the Center’s food allergy trials. He also reached out to communications student Brett Weiss to produce a video for his website bringing awareness to food allergies and oral immunotherapy.